Lions no match for marauding Petes

St. Peter’s cruised through to their fourth successive win of the Singer inter-school rugby league tournament when they crushed Trinity by 24 points (3G, 1P) to 3 (1DG) at Bambalapitiya yesterday. The winners led 10-3 at the breather. The Peterites last win against Trinity was in 2002 when the side was led by Dilanka Wijesekera.

Trinity had Petes guessing and got the first opportunity of making the score through a penalty in the ninth minute which was of kicking range but reliable place kicker fly half Kenneth Jacobs disappointed his supporters by kicking it astray. From there on it was the Petes who dominated the proceedings, though making the moves, they lacked the finishing touches. It was a row of missed opportunities for them and they badly failed to grab these chances. They have to blame themselves of having missed three scoring opportunities.

The Peterite pack gave the Trinitians a torrid time as they were just pushed away with ease. The Trinitians grabbed the only chance they received to penetrate the Petes territory when Kenneth Jacobs kicked a drop goal in the 26th minute to make 3-3. Petes undeterred continued their attack and at last were rewarded after having dominated the best part of the half when prop forward the burly Arjuna Bopitiya barged his way through for a try in the dying stages of this half for Irfath Meedin to add the extra points.

The second half too was a repeat of the first with the St. Peters continuing their attack. It took nearly 15 minutes in this half for the Petes to open the gates as they forced a five metre scrum and it that man Arjuna Bopitiya who made the scoring which was his second of the match with Irfath Meedin making no mistake with the conversion. The Trinitians could have made a match of it provided some of their players did not play a selfish game coupled to that skipper Sean Wanigasekera was not his self and was unable to do anything significant due to his knee injury and was almost a passenger. But the Petes continued their dominance and never left loop holes for their opponents.

The final try St. Peter’s scored was due to the mistake of a Trinitian player in their own territory as he fumbled with the ball off a long kick by the Peterites. Winger Gerald Canute charged on him that ended with No 8 Haren Ariyawardena going over for a try from a five metre scrimmage with man in form Irfath Meedin who had a wonderful game adding the extra points. With over 15 minutes left from there on the Petes held on to their lead and kept their opponents at bay to remain unbeaten and further strengthen their position of retaining the league title.